“Winning ain’t everything.”

That’s our reply to those who espouse the more common philosophy, “Winning is everything.”
We have the highest regard for Coach Casey Rogina. Here he is, new varsity basketball coach at his alma mater, after just one year of head coaching experience. We have to imagine that he desperately wants to be a success. And he inherits a good team: tall athletic center, gifted ball handlers, tough competitors. He has a successful pre-season, with his players gaining experience against good competition. Then he discovers that half his team – no, more than half his team – has violated team and school rules, rules whose violation would carry penalties preventing those players for participating any more this year.
Perhaps Rogina hesitated – surely we would have – but he did what is unquestionably the right thing by reporting the violation. Even assuming it could have been kept quiet, failing to make a report would have diminished his authority with the team and compromised his ability to lead and to teach. No, he taught, by example, what is really important.
Students are not on high school teams to bring glory to the school or the community, although it’s awfully nice when that happens. Instead, they participate in extracurricular sports as part of their education, and Rogina understands that. In practice and competition, they hone skills, they learn discipline and, most importantly, they develop character.
Some of us know, as parents, that it hurts to discipline, sometimes more than it hurts the child. Our love for the child has to be strong enough that we can discipline as we know is necessary for that child to grow and become independent. So, too, for a coach or a teacher. That love is put into practice in little ways every day on the court and in the classroom, and we applaud Rogina for his strength of character to care so much about his players that he can put discipline into practice in such a big way.
We feel for the boys who don’t get to play out the season, especially those who are seniors. We feel for their families, too, and have some sense of their disappointment. We hope that the boys can learn from this experience; it is a valuable lesson.
To Rogina’s further credit, the remaining boys played with inspiration last week, beating a favored team to win their league-opening home game. But to our minds, it doesn’t really matter – even if the team loses the rest of its games, the program is a success and the boys in it all the richer for having such a coach.
We acknowledge that our opinion on these matters is based in part on uncorroborated information. We don’t expect ever to know the details of what transpired, nor do we need to. What matters to us here is how people respond. It is up to adults in positions of responsibility to communicate the lesson that … “Actions have consequences.”